Sparks
by Autumn's Thief
Summary: AU story, present day. Kate's the new finance director at Victory Munitions. Will she get along with the dramatic PR director Gladys and the easy-going HR director Betty? Will she do well at her job or will the grumbling Mr. Akins send her home? An attempt at a lighter take of these wonderful characters.
1. Chapter 1

Harold Akins was a man who knew how to run a business. He was a man who knew how to run a factory. He was a man who knew how to pin all his mistakes and problems on someone else. He was not, however, a man that understood or could control women. He only thought that he could. And he had no idea that the hiring of a certain redhead as his new finance director would almost literally cause his munitions company to explode.

He had women in nearly all his directorial positions. But if you asked him, he always thought that a man was a better director. One night at home years ago, his wife was ironing, sewing on a button, talking about what trouble the neighbors had gotten into, and cooking his dinner all at the same time and he wondered over her ability to multitask so well as he sat on the couch and stared. That's when the brilliant idea popped into his head that if he gave multiple tasks to women who could multitask, then he could just sit on the couch all day long. And that is exactly what he did. On the outside, he constantly complained about his directors gossiping and not working or being too emotional and not focusing, but deep inside he was ridiculously proud of himself and when a moment of pride would take him, he would sit down on the couch he had specially ordered for his oversized office just for that purpose.

"Vera!" he yelled over the intercom to his personal assistant to make him sound serious.

"Yes, Mr. Akins?"

"Has that new finance director come around yet?" he yelled again because he loved giving the impression that he was constantly busy and under a lot of stress.

"Yes, she's on her way. Do you want to see her?"

"No, I'm busy." he shouted, playing with a rubber band and paper clip because he had nothing to do, "Have Betty give her the grand tour. HR will finally have something to do around here."

"Yes, sir." Vera giggled.

"And get back to work!"

Vera looked up from her desk at Betty who had stomped over just in time to hear that HR never did anything around there. She glared at the intercom like she wanted to make it explode and the look tickled Vera to pieces. Vera actually thought that watching all the different facial expressions that everyone went through while entering or exiting Harold's office was the best perk of the job.

"He really does have a lot of nerve." Betty grumbled in that faint prairie accent of hers as she leaned on Vera's desk.

"Oh, come on, Betty," Vera tried to soothe while adjusting her long, blond hair, "it's only 9 am. Are you going to get all worked up about him already? Plus, you've got that tour to give."

"Christ... With who?" Betty complained, going through what looked like 300 files in her hands.

"Let me see... One Ms. Kate Andrews."

"Kate Andrews?" Betty asked, cocking one eyebrow and diving into the files, "I don't seem to remember that name... Did I approve this? Where the hell is that file?!"

"Good morning, I'm Kate Andrews." a soft voice said to Vera.

Betty looked up. Kate Andrews was a young woman with unique copper hair and light skin, dressed in a classic, blue dress and when Betty looked at her, she almost dropped all her files.

"Shiii-" Betty hissed, catching the sliding files at the very last minute.

"Ms. Andrews!" Vera suddenly exclaimed, standing up and extending her hand, trying to give Betty a moment to collect herself, "Welcome to Victory Munitions. It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Vera Burr and I'm Mr. Akins' personal assistant."

"It's a pleasure." Kate replied, taking Vera's hand and shaking it.

"Mr. Akins wanted to personally give you a tour of the premises, but he's unfortunately very busy at the moment."

"A blatant lie if I ever heard one." a very classy woman said out loud while walking down the hall and passing the desk.

"Ms. McRae, our head of Human Resources, will give you the tour instead." Vera finished, ignoring the comment.

"Where can I find Ms. McRae?" the redhead inquired quietly.

"That's me." Betty said, struggling to extend her hand and not let loose an avalanche of papers, "Elizabeth McRae, HR director."

"Oh, it's a pleasure to meet you." Kate said warmly.

When Kate smiled, the papers in Betty's hands almost fell out again and Betty blushed and tried to fight with them for control.

"Do you… Do you need some help?" Kate asked shyly.

"Oh, no. I'm good." Betty replied, finally handling the situation by just dumping the papers on Vera's desk. "Let's give you that tour then."

Betty smoothed out her creme business suit and stretched out her hand in the direction they were to start going.

"Razzle and dazzle." Vera chipped in with a smile that always gave the impression that she was up to something.

Betty gave Kate a tour of the premises of the company, telling her what section and department did what along the way. They went to the opposite building first where the factory was located and the different types of munitions were produced. They then swung by the shipping department that was next door to the factory and finally returned to the administrative building where they would be working. Betty noticed that Kate didn't say much and she wondered if Kate was just that shy or whether she perhaps didn't know English all that well. Unfortunately for her, Betty also noticed how beautiful Kate was which made her nearly fall down the stairs once, but thankfully Kate didn't seem to notice.

"So this is the office for public relations." Betty pointed out back in the administrative building, "and this is its charming director, Ms. Gladys Witham."

They peered inside the open door to see the classy woman who had earlier thrown a sharp remark in passing now sitting at her rather massive, dark desk, talking over the phone. Betty watched as Kate had nearly the same reaction as she herself did when she first met Gladys- utter awe. The brunette dressed in a dark red dress looked like she had just been flown out of Hollywood and what annoyed everyone most is that she always looked like that. She seemed to be walking perfection. The down side was that Gladys also full heartedly shared that sentiment.

"I am working hard at trying to keep the company's image decent," Gladys growled, putting her hand over the mouthpiece of the phone for a moment and glaring at them, "so could you please go gape at someone else for the time being?"

Betty just grinned, used to Gladys' sarcastic exterior, but Kate's jaw nearly dropped to the floor.

"Yup, that's PR for you." Betty commented as Gladys swiveled her back to them and resumed her call, "Come on, my office is next."

Kate was about to drop to the floor on her knees and ask the movie star PR director to forgive her for her intrusion, but Betty led her away lightly by the arm before she could make a fool out of herself.

Betty led them into her office and turned towards Kate.

"This is my office." she stated proudly, spreading her arms out.

"It's very nice, Elizabeth." Kate said and she meant it; there was something comfortable in it.

"Oh, please, call me Betty." Betty noted, starting to whirl around her office in a fuss like she was planning to make dinner for five, "Please, take a seat."

"Alright. Thank you." Kate replied gently and sat down.

"Would like something to drink? Coffee? Tea? Jack Daniels?" Betty asked lightly.

"Oh, I don't drink." Kate stated, shaking her head seriously, missing the joke, "I'm fine, thank you."

Betty cocked an eyebrow at the redhead who seemed strung way too tight and automatically regretted not having that Jack Daniels nearby. She sat down at her desk and glanced at Kate, who sat so straight she looked like she had swallowed a broom stick and so properly as if she was at a sermon. But Betty reasoned that it was her first day and she probably wanted to make a good impression and was a little nervous too and Betty was sure that Kate had no idea what a crazy house the company could be.

"So how do you like it here so far?" Betty asked.

"Oh, it's very nice. It's all a little bigger than I had anticipated. It's a little..."

"Overwhelming?" Betty offered.

"Well... yes, a little." Kate answered with a smile, relieved that Betty seemed to understand.

"Yes, it can be. It's just a lot to take in at the beginning." Betty explained warmly, "When I started work here, it took me a week just to remember the way from the elevator to my office."

Kate smiled warmly, feeling strangely comfortable in her presence and Betty liked the way Kate lit up when she smiled.

"Listen, this job isn't a hard one, though it may seem that way. Rule number one: Don't let anyone get to you. Mr. Akins will always seem madder than he really is and louder than he needs to be. Listen to him, but don't let him bring you down." Betty advised, leaning over her desk a little to emphasize her points, "Vera's friendly unless she's really stressed and then she gets a little hysterical. Gladys seems to be a melodramatic snow queen, but she really is a good person once you get to know her. The managers down at the factory are more straightforward and they're easier to get along with. They just have a low bullsh-, um, a low tolerance for incompetence. You need an extremely high tolerance for that to keep your sanity around here."

Kate simply stared at Betty during her entire monologue, sitting straight, hands clutching her handbag, a small smile on her face. But Betty wasn't an HR director for nothing. If there's one thing that Betty did unbelievably well, it was reading people. She had an almost uncanny ability in judging people's integrity and intentions just by looking at them and exchanging a few words. Betty didn't know how she did it really; it was a gift. Betty regarded Kate and saw a broken puzzle. Everything seemed much too calm and well-ironed on the surface for Betty to believe it was true. She wondered what the redhead's story was, but then again, Betty was one of those people to whom everyone opened up sooner or later. There was one thing that Betty judged to be genuine in the woman across from her- Kate's shy warmth.

"I like you, Kate." Betty stated like a court judgment, "I think that you'll do just fine here. Just do your job and roll with the punches."

Kate nodded, but was a little concerned why any punches had to be involved in the first place.

"Come on," Betty said, getting up, "You're probably dying to see your office."

Kate followed Betty to the office next door. She looked up at the plaque on her door that read "Kate Andrews, Director of Finance".

"Wow..." she whispered in some wonder and Betty smiled shyly.

Betty was the one who had insisted that the plaque to put on the door before Kate got there and not 3 months later like in her case. It took a good argument with Mr. Akins and help from Gladys who stormed into his office and explained that the company had an image to maintain outside and inside the office and that they weren't a pack of Neanderthals to not have name plaques. Mr. Akins finally surrendered, grumbling about how women were much too dramatic for this job. Betty was proud of her little victory now; she took good care of all the employees.

Kate tried the door, but it seemed to be jammed. She tried it again, but with no luck and began to feel a little embarrassed.

"Here, let me try." Betty offered and tried the door, "This one's a little tricky. You have to jimmy it a little and... oh, there you go."

"Thank you." Kate sighed and they both walked into her office.

It was relatively bare, but Kate already loved it. She looked around at the empty bookshelves except for one which had different financial codes and other rules and regulations for reference, the large desk and office chair standing in the back center of the room, and the two large windows on either side. Kate began to imagine the things she could bring in to make it feel a little more... inviting. She let out a deep breath; she had made it.

"It's not much right now," Betty admitted, not knowing that it was so much more than Kate was used to, "but I think you'll probably do wonders to the place."

"Thank you, Betty. For everything." Kate said, turning to the blond and smiling that smile that made a solitary butterfly wake up in Betty's stomach.

"No problem. I'll be helping you out until you get into the swing of things, but if you ever need anything at all, I'm right next door." Betty said, walking out of the office and pointing in the direction of hers.

"Thank you. I'll keep that in mind."

Betty smiled and left the office just to poke her head back in 20 seconds later.

"I'll get maintenance to do something about that door." she said somewhat shyly.

"Betty McRae!" they both heard Gladys shout, "This is not a paper factory and we are not Neanderthals!"

"Oh crap, I forgot." Betty whispered and dashed over to Vera's desk.

A slightly perplexed Kate was left wondering if she had done the right thing leaving home and finding this job. She walked over to her desk and sat down in her chair. The people might be a little strange and slightly intimating, but something just felt so... right. Kate smiled at the thought.

* * *

Author's Note: This is my first try at something lighter and at least half-funny and not flooded with angst or hurt. Let me know what you think! :)


	2. Chapter 2

Kate's first two weeks at her new job went rather smoothly and that was thanks in part to Harold's relatively good mood and to Betty's help. The blond was patient and explained everything that needed explaining and helped when Kate needed it. Betty knew her way about the floor and her responsibilities as if she had been there all her life and Kate couldn't help but wonder if she would one day be able to do the same. Mr. Akins still hadn't seen her, but Kate understood that a director could be too busy to see a new employee right away. Everyone was busy, but Kate found that it was a manageable load of work and was quite grateful that she was having such a relatively comfortable time settling in. The redhead began to think that running off to the city and her new job was one of the best decisions she ever made.

* * *

"I am perfectly calm!" Kate heard being shouted from Mr. Akins office when she walked in that morning.

"Good morning." Kate said to Vera, approaching her desk and glancing at Harold's door warily.

"Good morning." Vera said a little grumpily, taking a sip from her coffee, content that the shouting seemed to be taking everyone's attention away from the faded, black floppy hat on her head.

"I _am_ keeping my voice down!" they both heard even more loudly.

"So how was your evening?" Vera asked conversationally, looking up at Kate from over her coffee cup as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on.

"My evening?" Kate asked, looking at the assistant surprised that she hadn't noticed the shouting taking place first thing in the morning and looking back at the door when she swore she heard something hit it hard.

"Oh, don't worry, Wide Eyes." Vera finally said lightly, seeing Kate staring at the door in nervous tension, "Gladys is in there talking to Mr. Akins."

"Talking?" Kate asked the assistant with both eyebrows lifted.

"Vera!" the intercom suddenly screamed.

"Yes, Mr. Akins?" Vera replied, calm as the Dalai Lama.

"Bring me some aspirin! I've got a headache."

"Oh, I'll give you a headache to be sure!" Gladys shouted right after him.

"Yes, Mr. Akins." Vera replied.

A little while later, Gladys stormed out of the room, muttering some curses in French that no one understood to be curses so that they wouldn't think that she wasn't a lady. Even in a rage, she looked like the personification of Hollywood; not a single hair was out of place, not a single crease on her pencil skirt. She barely acknowledged that anyone was even there until Vera's floppy hat caught her attention.

"What happened to you?!" Gladys asked in utter disgust.

"My hair straightener went on the fritz again." Vera grumbled and pulled the hat off reluctantly, revealing small patches of burnt ends.

"Pierre would have never allowed for something like _that_." Gladys noted, raising her hand to her chest in awful shock of the hairdo gone very wrong.

"_Pierre_ costs me $90 an hour. I'm not going to go see _Pierre._" Vera grumbled back, rolling her eyes.

"And that's why your head is smoldering now." Gladys tossed over her shoulder as she left with Vera's glare following her.

Kate couldn't decide whether Gladys intimidated or awed her. It was without question that Gladys looked like she stepped right off the silver screen. Everything on her, her clothes, her makeup, her hair was absolutely perfect like she never had a problem in her life. But Gladys was more dramatic in one minute than all the drama in all the movies Kate had ever seen. Gladys was always busy, in a hurry, and stressed, yet flawless. She would never walk, but rather had a sort of graceful march and the sound of her high heels would echo in the corridors as Gladys marched from one place to another, foretelling her usually displeased arrival.

* * *

"Mr. Akins wanted to see me." Kate announced to Vera that afternoon.

Vera snapped her head up from the ten things she was doing at once and looked at Kate. She was going to ask if Kate couldn't see that she was a tad busy, but those wide eyes made her forget her annoyance immediately.

"Go right in then." Vera said with a smile on her face, "You don't have to announce yourself every time you walk past here, Wide Eyes. I usually know you're on your way down here before you do."

Kate smiled shyly, nodded, and walked up to the director's door and knocked. She heard a muffled grunt of sorts which she decided meant that she could come in so she opened the door.

"You wanted to see me, Mr. Akins?" Kate asked, only poking her head through the door.

"You don't really expect me to talk to a floating head, do you?" he asked irritated because he was busy looking out the window and she was wasting his time.

"Of course not. I'm sorry." Kate replied quickly, giving a small bow and nearly slinking into the office.

She walked up to his desk, her eyes darting around nervously and she stood there in the middle of the office awkwardly, her eyes finally resting on a copy of _How to Win Friends & Influence People_ that was on his desk.

Harold breathed in deeply and straightened himself. A few days earlier he had run over the neighbor's rose bush while backing out of his driveway and never said a thing about it, firmly believing that the neighbors deserved it. The neighbors were obviously angry and spilled their sentiment to Harold's wife who automatically shared her own sentiments with him in a voice at least 100 decibals too loud. Harold tried to toss the blame on the bush for being planted in such a stupid place, but his wife wouldn't hear of it. Harold nearly had a stroke and a half when his wife demanded he apologize to the neighbors. When he said that he would never in a million years do such a thing, she marched him right next door and made him do just that. Right before falling asleep, his wife mumbled that if that was the way he treated his employees, then it was no wonder he was so busy and stressed.

That made a lightbulb go off in Harold's head that always turned on when he came up with an idea that might get him out of actually doing any work. The next morning, he logged on to Amazon to find books on managing, team building, coaching, soft skills, and anything else that looked useful. Since he didn't have time to sift through them all and choose a few good ones, he simply ordered all the titles and DVDs with pictures of smiling people that claimed they could make him a friendlier person and in turn make his employees work harder, which was all he was really interested in in the first place. He placed his order and used every free space he could on the order form to underline he wanted immediate delivery. He then leaned back in his chair, very pleased with himself and feeling a better person already.

After a slightly bored Amazon employee had called to make sure that he hadn't made an error in his order and that he actually did want _that_ many books and Harold had yelled over the phone that of course he did and why wasn't his package there yet and he didn't have time for this kind of nonsense because he was a busy man, his order was processed and shipped as quickly as possible. Three boxes had arrived that morning and Harold had started to read the first book, a little frustrated after 15 minutes that being a friendlier and more understanding boss was taking so long. He sighed heavily; no one understood the lengths he had to go to be a good boss. He raised his eyes to Kate.

"Are you doing alright?" he suddenly asked with a raised eyebrow as he looked at Kate standing there as if she really needed to use the restroom, "Settling in alright?"

"Yes," Kate said, relaxing a little in the friendly attention from the director, "It's been quite a week, but-"

"Listen," Mr. Akins said, pointing at the redhead, because he had already forgotten that he was supposed to be a little more understanding, "I've got the Ministry of National Defense breathing down my neck that finances haven't been crystal clear around here... for the past three years."

"Well, I could go through the back finances-" Kate started, snapping back to attention.

"Could? You _could_?" he repeated, his eyebrows shooting upward, "Look, I didn't hire you so you might do something. I hired you so you'd get it done."

According to Kate, it would take about six months to sort through all the financial reports, taxes, invoices, contracts, dividends, and payrolls of the last three years and find where the numbers didn't add up. As far as Harold was concerned, she could do all that today.

"You know, if you can't do it then I'll just find someone else who can. You're not the only person around who knows how to count."

Kate wanted to tell him that finance had a little more to it than just counting, but she was too shocked with the impression that Mr. Akins wanted to fire her before she had really even begun to work. She stared at him with her mouth open, her jaw moving slightly, but no sound coming out.

"I'm just saying that if the job is too hard for you-"

"No, I can do it." Kate finally forced out and felt exhausted.

Harold folded his arms, particularly impressed with himself, thinking that those books really did help and that perhaps he might order more.

"Are you waiting for something in particular?" he asked the stupefied redhead after about 30 seconds of silence that he found rather irritating, "I'm quite busy, you know."

"Um, no. I'll be, I'll be going." Kate stammered, shaking her head out of her stupor and leaving the office quickly for fear that she would either faint or begin to cry.

* * *

Betty walked into Kate's office to ask if she wanted to go to lunch about half an hour after Kate's meeting with Mr. Akins, when she was stopped cold by a gigantic pile of papers on the finance director's desk.

"Kate?" Betty asked, not really being able to see if the redhead was even behind the pile.

"Oh my goodness..." came a moan from behind the pile and a pair of overwhelmed eyes peeked out from over it, "Betty?"

Kate looked a little like a frightened rabbit that had been caught in the nude and asked to dance the Macarena and Betty would have laughed if it had been anyone else other than Kate.

"Is something wrong?" Betty asked, taking a couple of steps into Kate's office.

"Who was the last head of finance here?" Kate asked quietly.

"Hazel MacDugall. Why?"

"I don't know how to say this," Kate started timidly, "but the company's finances are... a complete disaster."

Betty silently thanked the powers that be that Carol hadn't heard because she would have automatically broken down into a hysterical fit about getting fired. The slightest word or tone of voice that carried any negative meaning according to Gladys' assistant would make her fly off the handle into a frantic panic that the company was going belly up and they were all going to get fired. What drove Betty mad was the fact that Carol had no family to support or huge loan to pay off; Carol was simply terrified of missing the finer things in life like Pierre. It made Betty sometimes wonder if Carol was even sane.

"And that's pretty much the reason Hazel was fired." Betty admitted with a slight shrug of her shoulders, "And that's why you were hired."

"And maybe fired." Kate mumbled.

"What do you mean?" Betty asked, knotting her brows.

Kate opened her mouth to tell Betty about the meeting she had had with Mr. Akins, thinking that maybe the blond would give her some advice, but then Gladys simply walked into the center of her office.

"I need the balance sheets for the last 12 months as well as the income statements, the statement of cash flows for last year, the report on stockholder's equity, and all the mutual fund and pension fund reports since March." Gladys stated, reading the list from her tablet and finally looking up at Kate who had shot up from her seat, "Well, do you have them for me already?"

"I... I..." Kate stuttered.

"Couldn't you have just emailed that list?" Betty interjected, watching the overwhelmed Kate from the corner of her eye.

"I wanted to stretch my legs. It's good for my circulation. Carol read about it in _Vogue_." Gladys explained and then turned back to Kate impatiently, "Well?"

"She'll send it over to you, Gladys." Betty said.

"I'd like to know when." Gladys noted, putting her hands on her hips, looking quite displeased.

"The world's not going to burn down if you don't have those papers right now. You'll get them by the end of the day." Betty explained coolly, subtly leading Gladys out of the office and when she saw the brunette getting ready to protest, she added, "The more time we waste here, the longer you're going to have to wait for your reports."

Gladys stopped right outside Kate's doorway, looked at Betty, turned to look suspiciously at Kate, and then turned back to Betty who was smiling at her.

"Fine." Gladys said reluctantly and stomped off graciously back to her own office.

"Don't mind Gladys. She's like that, but she doesn't mean any harm. She usually speaks more quickly than she thinks." Betty said warmly.

"I heard that!" Gladys shouted from down the hall.

"She's going to kill me, isn't she?" Kate groaned, looking at Betty with wide eyes nearly pleading for help.

"You'll just send her the reports she wants and she'll be out of your hair." Betty noted with a shrug.

Kate knew that made perfect sense, but the fact of the matter was that she didn't remember what Gladys had wanted and there was no way she would ask Gladys to kindly repeat. Everything seemed to be mounting up on the redhead's shoulders all of the sudden and she began to think that perhaps her father was right, she wasn't cut out for anything really; the only reason she had the job was Christian charity. She was already suspecting that Mr. Akins was ready to fire her and now Gladys would just be the final nail in her career coffin. Kate's wide eyes got even wider. She imagined that this was what a McDonalds employee must feel like having their first day be the day coupons came out. Then she began to imagine that she just might end up working at McDonalds if she gets fired. So feeling a little panicked, lost, very overwhelmed, and with no better idea, Kate began to hyperventilate.

"Hey, are you alright?" Betty asked, seeing Kate huffing.

"I'm fine." Kate gasped, trying to waggle her hand that everything was okay and then falling into her chair.

"Oh my God!" Betty cried and rushed over to Kate, "What's wrong?"

"I... I..." Kate stammered, her panic growing when she couldn't explain that her panic was growing.

"Do you want me to call an ambulance?"

Kate shook her head fiercely, no longer able to get words out.

"Alright then." Betty said and her ability to make split second decisions in emergency situations took over, "Look at me, Kate. Everything's going to be just fine, alright?"

Kate nodded though at the moment she would have begged to differ.

"Just calm down, alright? You need to calm down."

Kate nodded furiously, but continued to hyperventilate. Betty frowned and suddenly dashed out of the room. Kate wanted to call after her not to go because, frankly, she was scared, but she couldn't find her voice. Thankfully, Betty dashed right back in with a paperbag in her hand, opened it and handed it to the redhead.

"Breathe into this." the blond instructed.

Kate grabbed the bag and breathed into it, her eyes growing so wide that Betty thought they might pop out of her head. Betty took hold of Kate's hands and Kate's eyes darted up to her.

"Slow down." Betty instructed gently, "Just breathe in and out calmly. Like this... Again... That's it..."

Kate followed Betty's instructions and found that slowly her breathing was returning to normal. Kate looked at Betty who was looking at her with a smile and she felt a certain air of protectiveness from her, something that Kate realized she didn't think she had ever felt from anyone before. Betty was watching her with a soft intensity, crouched in front of her with one hand on her chair and the other on her wrist. And once her breathing returned to normal, Kate really didn't know what had helped more- the paper bag or Betty's presence.

"Are you alright now?" Betty asked, cocking an eyebrow in friendly scrutiny.

Kate nodded and Betty got to her feet and took a few steps towards Kate's doorway.

"You don't have to do all that yourself, you know. That's why you have an assistant." Betty mentioned, wanting to leave and give Kate some space.

"I have an assistant?" Kate asked in surprise.

As if on cue, Edith ran in all flustered and stopped right outside the doorway and in front of Betty.

"I'm sorry I'm late." she gasped out in heavy breaths as she alternated between putting her hands on her hips and looking up at the ceiling and putting her hands down on her knees and groaning towards the floor, "I swear I'll come in early tomorrow."

"It's alright." Betty assured her, "You didn't have a bust a gut to get here, you know. I got your email that you took half the day off."

"I was here earlier actually. But then I ran into Lorna and I accidentally asked her how it was going and... well, you know how she is."

Betty grinned, knowing exactly what Edith was talking about. Lorna was the company's Training and Safety Advisor as well as the Head Supervisor of Production and she took her job very seriously. She drove Mr. Akins and nearly everyone else she could find crazy with her constant suggestions on how production could be improved. It's not that her ideas were ridiculous, it's just that she had about one every half hour. Betty remembered that she once actually had to pretend that her neighbor had texted her that her kitchen was on fire otherwise the blond thought that she would never leave the parking lot. Naturally, the next day, Lorna found Betty, asked her if everything was alright, and then presented her with a fire safety manual, muttering something about blatant irresponsibility as she walked away.

"Well," Betty started, turning to Kate, "time to meet Edith, your assistant. She sits at that desk outside your office."

"I have an assistant?" Kate repeated as if she had just been told she won 10 million in the lottery.

"She's really nice and well organized. Hazel drove her crazy, but something tells me that the two of you will get along quite well." Betty explained with a smile.

Edith walked around past Betty and into the doorway, excited to meet her new boss.

"Hello, it's a pleasure- Good heavens! What happened here?" Edith asked in near horror, noticing the gigantic pile of papers.

"I... was looking for... something." Kate stuttered out, embarrassed even though it was Edith who worked for her and not the other way around.

"I'm gone for two minutes..." Edith mumbled, practically flinging her things onto her own desk and walking back into Kate's office.

"What are you looking for?" Edith asked matter-of-factly, rolling up her sleeves, determined not to let the papers get the better of them.

"It was the report... and annual... and something about an income statement." the redhead managed to say.

Edith simply stared at Kate who looked like she was about to burst into tears and turned to Betty.

"Have Gladys memo you the list for PR and I sent you mine already. I'm taking her to lunch."

"Good idea." Edith agreed with a vigorous nod.

"Lunch?" Kate asked like she had never heard of the concept, "I can't go anywhere. I have-"

"Me." Edith interrupted, "I'll get this all squared away by the time you get back and we can get down to work then. Does that sound good?"

Kate stared at Edith as if she was a godsend and simply nodded from lack of words. Edith attacked the giant hill of information and Betty motioned to Kate with her hand that they should get going. Almost as if in a stupor, Kate walked out of the office, turning her head to keep sight of her desk.

"But-" Kate protested weakly.

"They're numbers. They're not going anywhere." Betty assured her and subtly led her out of the office just like she had done with Gladys.

* * *

When the two women had returned from lunch, they found the mountain of papers put in order. Those areas that had something missing were put into neat stacks while the others were filed back away. Edith made a mental note to show Kate the electronic systems the company possessed to keep track of financial records because the prospect of a handful of papercuts every day wasn't something that was going to make her get up in the morning. Kate walked over to her desk in a daze, wondering what it was that Edith took that made her work so efficiently. Before Kate had a chance to say anything, Gladys almost flowed into the office.

"Am I going to have to walk down here for everything in person?!" she asked with visible displeasure and putting one hand on her hip to underline it, "I'm still waiting for my reports."

"Oh, well we just got back from lunch, but-" Kate tried to explain.

"My reports." Gladys repeated.

"I'm new here!" Kate finally cried, spreading her arms in exasperation to encompass all the work she had on her desk just in case Gladys hadn't noticed.

"That's not an excuse." Gladys said, unmoved.

Betty could see that Gladys was on the edge of a fit of anger while Kate was on the verge of a fit of tears. So she decided to do something she always did quite well- she put herself right in the middle of a dangerous situation.

"Listen, why don't the three of us go out today? It's Friday and we evidently could do with a little winding down." Betty suggested, walking between them and looking back and forth at the two women who were glaring at each other.

It was quiet for a long moment and Betty suddenly realized that if Gladys lost it then she would be the first one to feel it. She sometimes really felt sorry for the brunette. Everyone was either scared of her or annoyed with her dramatics, but Betty knew that she was a good person underneath, but just afraid to show it. She came from a rich and quite overbearing family and Betty sometimes wondered what Gladys would have turned out to be like if her parents had let her skin her knees at the playground and color the walls with crayons like Betty had done.

"Can we go to that one bar with the Mexican piano player with epilepsy?" Gladys asked suddenly.

"He doesn't have..." Betty started, but then sighed, "Sure, we can go there."

"The place with the pretty, purple drink umbrellas?" Gladys confirmed, still glaring at Kate.

"Mhm."

"Fine." Gladys agreed in a dramatic huff and then turned on her heel and left.

Betty took a deep breath of relief and turned back to Kate who was still standing there like she didn't know what to do next.

"I swear Gladys is a nice person. She's just like that with new people sometimes. She doesn't like the idea of anyone making excuses and not doing their job." Betty explained sympathetically.

"Is that why this company has such a high employee turnaround?" Kate shot back sarcastically and Betty couldn't help but grin.

Kate took a deep breath to calm herself and turned back to her desk, sitting at her chair and logging on to her laptop. Betty turned to leave, pulling on the door on her way out.

"Betty?" Kate called out, standing back up.

"Yes?" Betty replied, stopping and turning to the redhead.

"Thank you... for everything today." Kate said shyly, unconsciously wringing her hands a little, "It really means a lot to me."

"Any time." Betty replied with a wide grin and then closed the door quietly behind her.

Kate sat back down and took a moment to herself and closed her eyes. Betty had indeed helped, Kate knew she would probably be a heaving, sobbing mess right now if it hadn't been for the blond. And Betty's actions really did mean a lot to Kate because no one had ever done that much for her without even being asked and not asking for anything in return. Perhaps, Kate thought, she didn't only gain a new job, but she might have just found a friend as well.


End file.
